As former President Michael Benson and former Executive Vice President Chad Cooper sat down in the crowd to settle in for the remainder of the Student Government Association (SGA) meeting Monday, Benson glanced over at Cooper with a look of remorse.

“This is strange,” Benson said in his third row seat, looking at the front chairs where the two normally sat.

It was the fourth time in five years SGA executive board members were forced to step down from their positions, as Benson and Cooper resigned their posts Monday after being placed on probation by the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR).

As SGA’s constitutional chain of command dictates, Ashley Adams, who has served as vice president for academic affairs, will serve as interim president, while the executive vice presidency will now be occupied by John Guilfoil, who has served as vice president for administration and public relations. Both will also continue to serve in their current roles as vice presidents until a special election is held.

Benson and Cooper were found responsible by OSCCR last month for violating the university’s Acceptable Internet Use Policy when, according to Benson, they found themselves inside a folder belonging to OSCCR, which contained classified student documents.

He said they accessed the documents through a network account often given to work studies and student leaders by the Student Activities Office for record keeping and other administrative functions.

A different account, known as SGA1, is given to members of the SGA executive board. According to Guilfoil, that account does not allow users to gain access to the OSCCR folders Benson and Cooper discovered.

Cooper said the General Use Account has also been clearly written on the computers in the resource room for four years. He said the fact that the files could be accessed within the account was unknown by university computer specialists.

“They had no evidence in the case until we told them it happened,” Cooper said. “The university admits they did not know until we brought it to their attention.”

When they came forward to university administration, they were charged by OSSCR. Later, they were found guilty for a level 1 grievous violation of the university’s Code of Student Conduct, meaning they would be given a deferred suspension from the university and a $450 fine.

Included in these charges were breaking-and-entering, contempt and several other charges of which they were found guilty on all but one.

After an appeals process, the penalty was relaxed to a 30-day probation, with a $215 fine. The two will also have to construct 10 “vignettes” to be displayed around campus that illustrate the merits of the Acceptable Use Policy.

Guilfoil, who has worked closely with the Information Security Office from where the two were charged, said Benson and Cooper would have had to commit a serious crime for the case to be brought to OSCCR.

“IS has only sent five cases to OSCCR in the past year out of the hundreds they receive,” Guilfoil said. “They obviously raised some serious alarms. They raised those alarms by accident, then the gate came down.”

What set off those alarms, Cooper said, was a worksheet with sensitive student information that he and Benson opened while working.

“We didn’t stare at it, we closed it out after a couple seconds, but that set off this whole mess. We didn’t know the file was wrong until after the fact,” Cooper said.

Despite his own personal loss, Cooper said there was benefit to the incident for the larger student body.

“A major security hole that opened hundreds, if not thousands, of students’ information was closed [because of their findings],” he said.

OSSCR Assistant Director Tanner Chesney said that, by law, he could not confirm nor deny the existence of Benson and Cooper’s case.

As Benson and Cooper stepped down, though, the SGA appeared to consent that their leaders had been wronged.

Senator Imanuela Costiner called the conviction “outrageous,” while others, like Senator Molly Simpson, vowed that the senate would look into the issue further.

Additionally, “Student Code of Conduct,” was added to a list of rolling issues the senate would investigate for flaws in the name of the student body.

Guilfoil, a junior who has worked closely with Benson over his SGA career, said the outcome was in the best interest for the senate.

“I’ll never know all the facts, but it seems like they did the right thing,” he said. “They did the right thing stepping aside now.”

Though some senators feared the incident would tarnish the reputation of the organization, Adams said senate business would continue as usual.

“All plans will continue full steam ahead,” Adams said after the meeting. “We’re going to plow right through this instead of sitting here and dwelling on things we can’t change.”

Despite acknowledging that the reduced punishment has made the case far less bruising to his own reputation and future plans, Benson has hired a lawyer to continue to clear their name and prove he is in the right.

Benson has hired David Bunis of the Boston-based law firm Dwyer and Collora. As of press time, Bunis was unable to be reached for comment.

With their probation only lasting thirty days, though, there is still a chance Benson and Cooper could reclaim their offices. The SGA’s constitution and by-laws stipulate that elections must be held in the event of a resignation from office.

Though the SGA President has final say on when the elections will be held, Adams said the current executive board would meet to determine the election date together.

Cooper and Benson both said they would run again if senators were to nominate them.